iOS7 Review

On Monday June 10th Apple released their new look iOS.

iOS7 was reported to be an all new, all singing, all dancing OS; a complete new look by overhauling the current iOS look and feel. Apple certainly made a change - a change to their usual coolness, reliability and trustworthiness by releasing iOS7 'beta' for developers on this first day of their WWDC 2013.

In the past,  Apple always exceeded all expectations and rolled out an amazing piece of software - even in beta.

I've used iOS7 for 6 days and I've found the following 'issues':

• Tweets randomly fail from iOS.
• Doesn't always show as a connected device in My Computer.
• Camera doesn't work (intermittenty) from lock screen - wont take picture.
• Asking to choose a WiFi connection when there are none available.
• Calendar crashes when adding appointments.
• Safari crashes randomly.
• iMessage broken - cannot receive any messages via iMessage.
• FaceTime broken.
• Can't access LAST called in ALL CALLS - the list rolls up and stops at second from last but chops this in half - preventing you seeing this record also.
• No push notifications.
• iOS Facebook app crashes regularly.
• Reminder app is now too complex to use easily. Total overkill!
• Siri still as bad as in iOS6.
• Too much time spent on appearance,  i.e floating icons and motion responsive Home Screen.
• Camera app faded out and stopped recording video after 30 seconds.
• Camera stays black or blurry at times when attempting to shoot photos.
• Deleting images from CAMERA ROLL also deletes them from your PHOTO STREAM -WTF?!
• Task switching slow to respond - on a 4s anyway.
• Forgets passwords - for twitter for example.
• Time adding pointless stuff like flash light when more important stuff needed doing.
• New UI doesn't look right - it lies over the apps etc. Kind of bodged together.
• After an initial Google search, you cannot modify the search string in Google - safari moves this up and forces you into using its omni-box.
• Battery life is hammered 6% in 7 mins.
• No car/position icon in maps.
• Phone flashes apple logo when using apps - as it regularly reboots.
• Randomly throws a load of blank lines at the end of a note in notepad.
• YouTube app randomly crashes on video playback.
• Security screen can be bypassed.
• Doesn't appear to confirm to Apples own HIGs.
• Phone slower to charge and drains faster.
• Cannot use select/highlight (double click text and adjust highlight) when hovering. If flashes and jumps all over!
• On HTTPS sites you cannot use drop down menus for selecting security parameters like letters from passwords etc.

Overall, for me, iOS7 (beta 1) is a huge disappointment - in my opinion it's the most unstable beta ever released and I feel it should have been released as an ALPHA. My previous reviews - of iOS6 for example - shows how Jobs and Forstall got it right, Cook and Ive well, they have got it just plain wrong!

It comes to something when you have to leave your unwell partner and child at home and travel an hour to an Apple store to have iOS7 removed and reverted back to iOS6 simply because you cannot trust it with important stuff you need such as receiving a call, SMS or iMessages - without even mentioning shit like reminders, appointments, notes etc. 

People arguing "it's a beta dude!" doesn't cut with me - Google's Gmail was in beta for many, many years and since 2005 I can honestly say, I have never had any problems with their 'beta' versions of Gmail.

Come on Apple - this is simply NOT good enough; it says a lot when an avid Apple fan like myself has to come to a Google platform to slate an Apple product that in the Jobs' days, would have been simply... amazing!!